Chapter 5
What happened to her? She hasn’t come to school for a week! Don’t tell me she really…
“REI!”
Rei jerked up, startled. His clique was staring at him.
“What happened? It’s like your soul flew somewhere else after her…”
“SHHH!!! You idiot, don’t talk about it now!”
“Yeah, didn’t you hear that legend…”
Rei smiled carelessly at his friends. “Sorry. I was thinking of schoolwork…” His voice was drowned by the eager chatter in the conversation of his friends, as well as the pelting of rain on the glass panes. The rain had not ceased at all since the funeral, as if nothing was right once Yui was gone. Rei’s gaze went back to where it originally was: the window whose view was directed at the school gates. He had been hoping to hear from Kumiko…whose last words to him were strange. Don’t tell me she really did…
A sudden silhouette he saw made him freeze. Was that…? He stood up, his chair clattering down onto the granite. The class stared at him, surprised at his sudden outburst.
“Rei, are you…”
“I’ll be gone for awhile, help me tell the teacher!” Rei said, jumping over the legs of the fallen chair and dashing out to the main gate.
“REI!”
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“Kumiko-san!”
The silhouette froze. Rain continued to pour as Rei’s clothes started to sag from the absorbance of water. The rain hammered down onto the 2 figures in the blur scene.
“As I thought…Kumiko…why aren’t you coming to school?” Rei shouted above the din of the rain.
Kumiko remained still. As usual, her head was bowed, her shoulders hunched forward, as if she had done something wrong. But then, she lifted her head and turned it a little way back over her shoulder. Rei saw her eyes.
I’ll come back to school tomorrow, Rei realized as he gazed into Kumiko’s eye. Her eyes were remorseful, with the sign of an emotional scar in it. But yet, there was a sense of courage and fear that were struggling within each other’s grasp. What are you up to? Rei wondered even more as the figure called Kumiko disappeared into the mist of the rain.
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The door of the classroom snapped open. Silence reigned as her shoes clacked against the tiles of the floor and everyone turned around just to get a glimpse of the new her.
Her hair was bundled up on the left of her head, the clover clip holding the bunch together. Chipped it might be from the fall, but still usable. The colour of Yui’s eyes were captured by coloured contacts, and her uniform was mimicked to the best of Kumiko’s ability. Kumiko had transformed herself…into Yui.
Her eyes cold and distant, her aura unapproachable, Kumiko sat down in Yui’s seat, in the exact position that Yui always liked. Eyes in the class were all fixed on her, but Kumiko did not care. She rested her head on her hand and stared out of the window at the pouring rain.
She…changed herself…completely, Rei thought, his eyes also captured by the presence of a newly changed appearance. Did she spend the entire week doing this? But…she wasn’t like this when I saw her yesterday…the reason why she didn’t speak to me…was she changing the way she speaks? What caused her to change like that?
The silence was shattered by the teacher entering the classroom. “Homeroom!” he barked and the class silently retreated to their seats. The teacher cleared his throat and said “Today we have self study. All of you take out your textbooks are start revising for your next test!” With that, he left the classroom as the students gave silent cheers.
Some of the more diligent students started revising for the upcoming English test, however, more of the students were curious about the change in Kumiko. They started to crowd around her, with questions like arrows aimed at her.
“What’s with your change?” “What happened to you?” “Why were you absent for a week?” “What’s with the way you wear your clothes and hair? It looks like…”
All these questions were either said with concern, or with scorn and disgust. Well, but knowing these students that scorned on Kumiko’s crush…it’s obvious which expression was used more.
Kumiko’s eyes were still bleak and folorn. She stared at the textbook infront of her. No one could tell if she was really concentrating on the words or listening to the questions, but finally, she spoke a sentence.
“From today onwards…” She hesitated awhile. She lifted her head, and everyone saw the strange calmness of her eyes. “…I’ll be taking over Yui’s place. From her duties…all the way to her friends.”
Everyone stared at her. Some people, astonished but satisfied by the answer, dispersed from the crowd. Others who were unsatisfied stayed put.
“Then you spent the week…”
Kumiko didn’t say anything, but turned her head mechanically towards her book, and inclined her head slightly.
“Well then,” a girl stepped forth. “Let’s see how you are going to be Yui then. She the class representative, as you know, and she’s also one of the best in grades as well as a great athlete. Can you keep up with that?”
Kumiko turned her eyes at her, and at the same moment, a flash of lighting bolted across the sky, the ear-splitting thunder coming along with it.
Her face was illuminated by the lightning. Kumiko was eerie, her aura was filled with resentment and hate, yet the voice she spoke in was filled with confidence and reassurance to the rest of the class. They stiffed up as they saw the coldness in her eyes.
“Yes.”
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